Vantage Breaks Ground on $15B Stargate Campus in Wisconsin
The Lighthouse campus will feature four data centers spanning over 650 acres.
Vantage Data Centers has broken ground on the Lighthouse data center project in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Driven by a $15 billion investment, Lighthouse is part of Oracle and OpenAI’s Stargate initiative and marks what Vantage calls a “major step forward” for digital infrastructure and economic growth in the Midwest.
The campus will feature four data centers on 674 acres, delivering 902 MW of IT capacity. The facilities will be built to a sustainable-by-design blueprint that includes closed-loop cooling and the development of “zero-emission energy capacity.”
Lighthouse Campus: Development Details
Located 30 minutes from Milwaukee, the Lighthouse campus is Vantage’s first data center complex in the Badger State.
Construction of the $8 billion first phase will be undertaken by Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, The Weitz Company, Michels Corporation, and a joint venture between Turner Construction and McCarthy Building Companies. It is expected to be completed by 2028.
Vantage Data Centers’ Lighthouse campus in Wisconsin will deliver 902 MW of IT capacity across four sustainably designed data centers. (Image: Vantage Data Centers)
“We are proud to work alongside community organizations, union partners, and local leaders as Lighthouse creates thousands of union-majority construction jobs and helps position Wisconsin as a hub for AI and digital innovation,” Vantage said in a LinkedIn post.
Attending the groundbreaking ceremony last week were Ted Neitzke, Mayor of Port Washington; Gale Klappa, with the Milwaukee 7 Regional Partnership; and Emily Pritzkow and Dan Bukiewicz of the Milwaukee Building Trades Council.
Related:Oracle and OpenAI Win Michigan Approval to Power New Data Center
Opening the Stargate
Announced at the start of the year, Stargate was created by a consortium of tech giants, including Oracle, OpenAI, SoftBank, and MGX, with Arm, Microsoft, and Nvidia also involved as key technology partners.
Stargate will include 10 data centers located across the US and internationally. The ambitious $500 billion investment aims to deliver 10 GW of capacity over the next four years.
In addition to the Port Washington campus, Stargate facilities have been confirmed for Abilene, Texas; Shackelford County and Milam County, Texas; Doña Ana County, New Mexico; and Lordstown, Ohio.
Further afield, Stargate Norway aims to deliver 230 MW of capacity, and Stargate campuses are also planned for the UAE, UK, and Argentina.
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chairman and chief technology officer, said the venture could potentially expand to include up to 20 data center projects.
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” OpenAI said in a news release in January.
